Bankai's artist roster combines exciting new-blood producers with established names in the scene. Similar to it's brother labels, Bankai focuses on fresh and diverse mutant dancefloor music that sits between genres such as dubstep, techno, electro and hard breakbeats. Set up partly due to a rising stack of demos that were too good to turn away, and partly due to frustration at the slowness of vinyl releases, these tracks have been bubbling away in the underground for some time now, supported on stations like Sub FM, ill FM and various club gigs in Europe.
The label's focus will be primarily digital, though vinyl and CD formats are in the pipeline.
BANKAI01 - Mutant Munitions EP
audio previews here:
http://www.myspace.com/bankaiaudio
[a] Whistla - Riot Squad
The man like Whistla should need no introduction but since this is a press sheet we'll give one anyway.
Running the top underground beats'n'bass station Sub FM, and label boss of Ox Rider Records and Warehouse Meditation, Whistla's unique 2-step mutations have been embraced by labels such as Ringo, Clandestine Cultivations, Kursed Recordings, Ox Rider and Warehouse Medi. Riot Squad is a particularly cold, heads-down dirty mutant track that was hand picked specially for Bankai. Combining his beloved 2 step swivel rhythms with cold, mechanical pads and square basslines to give an understated but powerful dancefloor roller.
Point B - Creepy Steeple
Richard Bultitude aka. Point B progressed from his early experimental post-punk four track recordings in Merseyside to his current releases on some of the UK's most bleeding-edge electronic labels like Combat Recordings, ScSi Av, Frijsfo Beats, Discordance, Colony Productions, Orson Records and Erratica Music. Having resided in south London for several years now, he has focused on the more groove-driven side of music, exploring 2 step and dubstep of his native Brixton. This gave rise to the widely acclaimed Cinder Cones EP on Combat, which had support from DJs as diverse as Mary Anne Hobbs, Stormfield, Blackdown, Boomnoise, Freak Camp and was even featured on Mary Anne Hobb's Generation BASS show in august 2008... large up the DJ OneMan!
Creepy Steeple is his first release on Bankai, a prowling, snarling dubstep monster with sharp metallic beats, sinister alien bass riffs and tonnes of sub. Amid this formidable drumwork sits the adept, subtle wisp of melody that Point B productions are noted for.
[c] Full Spectrum - Psychopath
Another south Londoner, Ricky Evans aka. Full Spectrum has been producing for 6 years, fueled by listening to old rave tapes, hardcore and jungle around '92 - '93. His progression followed from jungle to garage, then to drum'n'bass which he produced for several years. A chance meeting with old school friend Elemental exposed him to the deep and versatile nature of dubstep.
Full Spectrum tracks (which you'll hear much more of in future) are characterictic for their rolling groove, old breaks and old school stabs laced with techy, intricate sounds that evolve and progress through the track. These tracks have found their way into the hands of forward-thinking DJs such as Blackmass, BunZero, Cyrus, Matt U, Noiz, Stormfield among others.
[d] Bass Science - No Power
Half based in Tokyo, half in Los angeles, Bass Science is a duo that bastardise dubstep, glitch hop, IDM and dub into a fresh new sound that is simultaneously super filthy and extremely clean. Italian-born, Tokyo-based MattB (RaNDom) and Chicago-born, LA-based Steve Nalepa developed a virtual friendship out of mutual respect, remixing each other and releasing on compilations together before their first realtime communication. After sharing bills together in the UK and California, the pair of dub scientists began collaborating, the resulting soundclash melding serious low end, deep pocket rhythms, crunchy distortion, glitchy mouth percussion, blips, bleeps and a heavy dose of dub delay.
Individually, these two standout producers have flourishing solo careers. Together as Bass Science, they are a force to be reckoned with, crushing dancefloors around the world with with their unique brand of glitchstep/dubhop. Glade Festival 2008 saw the invasion of Bass Science into UK dancefloor territory.
Bankai aims to release about one EP each month, pushing new artists alongside established names.